birthday wishes

It's Thursday and time for Kristina's color challenge! This week was a doozy - Pacific Point, Kiwi Kiss, Rose Red, Regal Rose, and Whisper White. Since I don't have any In Colors yet, I substituted Pacific Point and Kiwi Kiss for Tempting Turquoise and Old Olive. I created the embossed frame by running my card through the Cuttlebug using the embossing mat. I love the look it gives and I have always wanted to try it.

That's it for today - gotta run and get Avery ready for soccer practice. Where does the day go!?

Edited: I have had some questions about embossing with the Nestibilities dies. Nichole Heady has a great tutorial at her blog, here. It has information at the top, but scroll down and you'll see the tutorial. I hope this will be helpful!

Karen

recipe -

paper: whisper white

stamps: sincere salutations

ink: regal rose

accessories: regal rose wide grosgrain ribbon, flower fusion accents & elements, filigree brads, silver brads, ice rhinestone brads, rectangle nestibilities/embossing mat, mini glue dots

thinking of you

This week's featured stamper at Splitcoaststampers is Jessica - aka knightrone AND fellow Great Swaps Girl! It was sooooo difficult to choose a card in her gallery to CASE, but I finally narrowed it down to this card. Don't you just love it? You all need to stop by her gallery and check out her work. It is fantastic!

Thanks so much for stopping by - I hope you are having a wonderful week.
~Karen

Recipe -
stamps: artfully asian
ink: staz-on black, rose red, always artichoke
paper: basic gray, rose red, stampers select white (papertrey, ink)
accessories: blender pens, love & happiness rubons, d'vine swirls cuttlebug embossing folder, satin ribbon (american crafts), corner rounder, paper piercer, stampin dimensionals

a very TALL hello

Well this card seems to tower and I should have put a bigger scallop at the bottom, but I'm just going to leave it. Anyway - on to another retiring set, Taggers Dozen. Sigh... I use this set all the time for little greetings, not so much for tags though. I thought the little circles went well with the challenge picture and the circles from the cuttlebug embossing folder. I haven't used that one in a while either.

This one is for Kristina's color challenge and it was a tough one! She was nice enough to add Wild Wasabi to the mix even though it wasn't in the picture, thanks Kristina! Today's colors are So Saffron, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White, and Sahara Sand. The card layout is from Beate's weekend sketch challenge, which is her last for the summer. I'll miss them every week and it will make them more fun when she returns in the fall!

Have a great weekend - I'm off to Taylor's blog to do her Cupcake Challenge because it's a super cute one too! So I might see you back here before Monday.

Thanks for stopping by again today!
~Karen

Details -
paper: sahara sand, wild wasabi textured cardstock, whisper white, so saffron cardstock
ink: wild wasabi, so saffron, versamark
stamps: tagger's dozen
accessories: so saffron brads, clear embossing powder, spots and dots embossing folder, stampin' dimensionals

tiny project gone crazy

Hi there! The past couple of days I have been working on getting a project done for my MOPS group. We are already frantically getting ready for next year because our leadership retreat is in 2 weeks! Anyway, we were trying to figure out a cute way to personalize our leadership bags and we came up with decorating keychains to hang on the zipper. Well, this is what came of it - 25 of them... I think they are so much fun! Our theme is Adventures in Motherhood with a themepark kind of logo, so we went with bright colors and themepark food. The flip side of the keychain is a monogram, for that personal touch. Anyway - no cards today, but I did do something crafty, so I thought I'd share. Now, if you are reading this blog and are at my MOPS group, pretend you didn't see this and be thoroughly surprised on the 28th, k?!

~Karen

Details -

all the images are clip art from word art and the monogram font is ck applause. the lettering around the clip art was made in photoshop elements and the font is 2p's lighthouse.

more fun with the cuttlebug

I'm still working on the bridal shower invitations, but what better way to procrastinate than to make entirely new cards?! Since I already have my Cuttlebug on the desk for the invites, I just whipped up a simple card using the stylized flowers embossing folder and rectangle nestibilities scallop. Done! This one doesn't have a sentiment on it, but I think I'll list it as a Mother's Day card.

I hope you are enjoying your week. See you back soon!

~Karen


Details -
Stamps: priceless
Paper: stampers select white, soft sky
Ink: bayou blue, groovy guava
Accessories: soft sky double stitched grosgrain ribbon, nestibilities scalloped rectangle, stylized flowers embossing folder (cuttlebug), gemstones (the paper studio)

up to my elbows in invites...

Hello! I'm still here - and I've missed posting and doing challenges the end of last week and all weekend! Where does the time go? I'm feverishly working on a big order of bridal shower invitations and it's taking up all my limited stamping time, so I haven't had a chance to make anything new to show. Don't get me wrong though, I'm loving making these invites and I'm so happy to have the order. It's my own fault it's taking a long time because I thought it would be a nice touch to color the images by hand instead of doing a simple stamp. Well, that's all fine and dandy for one sample, but add a bunch of them and whoa! Its good. I love it. At least I'm not heat embossing each one like I did for my Christmas cards - yikes!

This card is a back to basics card really - limited layers and such. I had to do something that was quick and easy and this is what I came up with. The main image is a toss-away from trying out different things for the bridal shower invites, so that was a piece of cake to just add to this card. Loving the embossing folders for the Cuttlebug, although the one I've really had my eye on is sold out everywhere lately. I really would like to get Birds & Swirls, but patience is a virtue, right?

Oh, by the way, I borrowed this card from Taylor to do this card today. Loved her card!

That's it for today - thanks for stopping by and I hope to post again soon!

~Karen



Details: stamps: big on spring; ink: lavender lace, mellow moss (applied with blender pens/reinkers), black staz-on; paper: stampers select - papertrey ink, lavender lace; accessories: rectangle & scallop nestibilities, stylized flowers embossing folder, gemstones - the paper studio, purple ribbon - dashes, dots & checks, flower punch ek success

mega challenge

Hi! The card says it all, right? ha! Today is an interesting card since I tried to put several challenges into it. First I have Beate's inspiration challenge, seen here - the green circles are what inspired me to use my Cuttlebug embossing folder, Spots & Dots, circle sentiment and the little buttons. All things circle here! The second challenge was Kristina Werner's color inspiration #2 which was to use wild wasabi, so saffron, groovy guava and blush blossom. Can you tell from the card that blush blossom is not one of my favorites? I only had scraps to work with! So that is the reason it only appears in a small circle. The card base is wild wasabi (can't tell by the way my picture came out - still need to figure out my new computer here. Might have to change out the photo later.) I had also wanted to use the Cuttlebug negative effect challenge on splitcoast, but when I did it, it really looked, uh strange. Need to practice up on that one I suppose.

Thanks for visiting!

~Karen



Details: stamps: NONE! paper: wild wasabi, so saffron, blush blossom, groovy guava accessories: apricot ribbon, so saffron buttons, cuttlebug embossing folder spots & dots, cuttlebug alphabet olivia (I think), circle punches - all sorts of sizes.

stepping into a new zone

I am really stepping out of my color comfort zone with this card today. I just received a package of East Coast Prep designer series paper, you know- to make more boy-ish cards, and I jumped right to it and thought I'd try out a little boy birthday card. I've never been a big More Mustard kind of girl, so this was a leap for me. I wasn't entirely sure I even liked the card until I looked at it later and it definitely grew on me. It's just fun and cheery. Then I had to tell myself that any 5-year-old boy that opened this card would instantly toss it aside to open the present it was attached to. Right? So why worry?! The card base is Wild Wasabi (4-1/4 square). I sent the more mustard paper through my Cuttlebug with the Spots & Dots embossing folder. The '5' is from Headline Alphabet, now retired, and I cut it out with a hobby blade and scissors. I can't seem to master the skinny middle of letters and numbers - anyone have tips? The layout is from sketch challenge 165 over at splitcoaststampers and I thought the little star she had there in the sample was cute, so I stole that idea too. Off to the next challenge...

Have a great day!

~Karen